Conscience

Conscience can be defined as the faculty, power, or principle of a person which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of his or her actions, with a compulsion to do right; a moral judgment that prohibits or opposes the violation of a previously recognized ethical principle.

“The conscience is the regulative faculty, and if a man allows his conscience to become perverted, he cannot serve God aright.”1

“The Spirit of God keeps evil under the control of conscience.”2

Through the prophet Isaiah, God speaks of a divine voice giving clear directions to men and women, guiding them in the right path: “Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left” (30:21).

One of the most useful inventions for giving accurate Global Positioning System navigation directions is the GPS. To work properly, the system must be connected with GPS satellites.

Our conscience was given to protect us against following wrong directions. When guided by the Holy Spirit, it helps us to do right and avoid wrong steps in daily life. However, the conscience by itself cannot do much. Our conscience is a safe guide only when led by the Holy Spirit.

There are many kinds of conscience; for example, a good conscience, a defiled conscience, a seared conscience, an evil conscience.

Through God’s strength, the apostle Paul was able to testify: “I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” “and herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Acts 23:1; 24:16, emphasis added). He explains that the “end [aim] of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience” (1 Timothy 1:5).

Paul also identifies those who reject divine truth as “speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2, emphasis added), revealing that “unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate” (Titus 1:15, 16).

We are solemnly warned that “one safeguard removed from conscience, the indulgence of one evil habit, a single neglect of the high claims of duty, may be the beginning of a course of deception that will pass you into the ranks of those who are serving Satan, while you are all the time professing to love God and His cause. A moment of thoughtlessness, a single misstep, may turn the whole current of your lives in the wrong direction.”3

“It is a solemn thought that the removal of one safeguard from the conscience, the failure to fulfill one good resolution, the formation of one wrong habit, may result not only in our own ruin, but in the ruin of those who have put confidence in us. Our only safety is to follow where the steps of the Master lead the way, to trust for protection implicitly to Him who says, ‘Follow me.’”4

Only the blood of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit can purify our conscience: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14).

After being forgiven through the merits of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, the believer can be in peace with God without an accusing conscience. “Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins” (Hebrews 10:2). Therefore, “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (verse 22).

In this issue of The Reformation Herald, the importance of this subject is seriously considered.

Good reading!